


An American, An Englishman and An Irishman Walk into a Club

by KazOfScotland



Category: Strike Back
Genre: Liam Doesn't Die, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:29:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25423174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KazOfScotland/pseuds/KazOfScotland
Summary: It's been a year since Baxter 'died' and now Scott, Stonebridge and Baxter are going to face each other.Basically this is from the Keep Calm and Write Something Rare Pair Fest 2020, and it doesn't really have any plot.
Relationships: Liam Baxter/Damien Scott/Michael Stonebridge
Comments: 8
Kudos: 8
Collections: KCAWS Rare Pair Fest 2020





	An American, An Englishman and An Irishman Walk into a Club

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to SethWren for being an amazing beta reader and reading over this for me. 
> 
> Also thank you as well to everyone at KCAWS on Facebook for all of the support and for hosting this fest.

It was a quiet night and honestly Liam couldn’t stand to spend much longer cooped up in his flat. He went to work everyday but it was a nine to five job he worked now that he wasn’t with Section 20 anymore. He loved the computer side of the military, the analysing and planning, but he missed the action of being a part of the Section. But more than that, he missed the banter and the friendships that he had built there. 

He could count his major regrets on one hand, but the biggest one, the one that still haunted him today, that was simple. It was the fact that he had been made to cut contact with Michael and Damien, the two men that he had built an amazing bond with. It wasn’t a relationship like most people expected a relationship to be. But it worked for them. It was perfectly, unconventionally them. 

All he wanted to do was drown out the sorrows of the regrets of his past. He knew that he had to make an attempt to stop living with the ghost of his previous relationship, so instead of wallowing, he got dressed up. A pair of dark jeans that hugged in all the right places, a dark green button up shirt that made his eyes pop, and then he styled his hair so as to hide the side of his head where the bullet had left a line of scar tissue. He was going to go out, he was going to get good and drunk, and he was going to have fun. He would dance, he would drink and he would flirt. His mind was made up. 

Damien Scott hated it when a child was involved in an operation, he hated it even more if they were classed as collateral damage. He had done a lot of things that he would never be able to live with, but he would never take another innocent child’s life. His last job for the CIA had been the one and only time. He wanted nothing more than to make up for the mistakes of his past. He wanted to save as many innocent lives as he could to make up for the innocent lives he had taken. 

He knew a lot of his job was violent, but this was the first time that he had felt as though he had made a mistake regarding his future. Today though, he had to question if agreeing to stay with Section 20 and therefore the military was the best idea given that most of his days were spent shooting and killing to try to save the world. He knew the moment he had joined the Section that everything had fallen into place, it felt like everything was as it should be again. He had stopped the ring fighting, he was actually trying to make a difference in the world again. It was like he was back with Delta again. And, more than that, he had started to trust people again. 

But tonight, tonight he wanted to be alone. A year ago, he would rather have sat in a flat, with Michael and Liam, drinking beer whilst the two Brits argued over whatever they were watching on the television. Normally it was soccer, or football as the two other men insisted, and he would just sit back and allow their bickering to drown out the screams of those he had hurt in the past that tried to fight their way to his consciousness

So he was going to fall back on the bad habits of the past, the habit of drinking himself stupid and then waking up in the morning in some stranger’s bed. After joining the Section his coping methods had become more appropriate, but then Liam had been killed in action a year ago, and it started to go downhill. He couldn’t tell you when he fell in love with the younger man but he knew that he loved him. If you asked him when he started to fall in love with Michael, that was a question he could answer, that was that first mission in India, when Michael had to pull a bullet out of leg in the middle of a hostage situation. 

Whilst a year ago, he had been happily trying to figure out how to make a relationship work when he wanted both men, now he wanted to ignore any feelings that he had. He and Michael were making a good go of it, but he couldn’t deny the fact that he missed Liam and he wished that there had been a chance for them to spend more time together, even the three of them just as friends. But sometimes, he couldn’t deal with the guilt of being happy with Michael when he and Liam had been happy together until he was executed working on a mission that he and Michael should have been on.

So when a mission went wrong and the guilt got to be too much, he shut himself off from Michael and he would spend as much time on his own as possible. And if that didn’t work he would rely on his good friend for company - alcohol - which was normally enough to numb him from the horrors of his actions and his job. 

Michael hated days like this. Days when a mission had gone wrong, when innocent lives had been taken, and Damien started to push everyone away. Before, when he hadn’t been able to pull the American out of his head, Liam had done so, but now that wasn’t an option, and it honestly worried him. He knew that his relationship with Damien was complicated. 

He loved the man, had done since nearly the beginning, however he also knew that Damien had loved Liam, and that it was a love that wouldn’t just end. He didn’t mind, he wasn’t in love with Liam the way that Damien was, but he had cared for the younger man. He missed the nights when they would all be together and would watch football and drink beer, or rather he and Liam would watch football whilst Damien had tried to distract them into making out. Normally the following morning they would all awaken in the same bed and then go to work without so much as a conversation about it. 

It hadn't been a relationship between the three of them as such, but it had been something. He knew that if it had been a year ago tonight would have been one of those nights where they all ended up at Damien’s, and whilst Michael cooked both Liam and Damien normally ended up curled up on the couch or on Damien’s bed. There was a sort of comfort that Liam gave the American that he couldn’t. He held no ill-will or jealousy over that fact, he just wished that he could provide some of that comfort now. 

They were in a place where Liam was dead, killed in action on a mission that he should never have been on. If it had been a year ago, before Liam’s apparent death, he would be the one who would comfort him rather than let Damien fall into despair. So he knew where Damien would be, he knew what would happen, and he knew how he dealt with that one. 

Damien would be in a pub, he would get drunk and he would flirt and flirt until he found someone to go home with. Michael was used to this by now, it didn’t happen regularly, just a few times in the last year, but he also knew when he had to turn up at the pub to ensure that it was him that Damien went home with. Those nights were normally hard and fast rather than passionate like he had become used to, but he would not grudge the man he loved for dealing with the ghosts of his past in this way. 

No, he got dressed up nice, a dark pair of jeans and a nice button up shirt, and he made an effort to attract Damien to his looks and not just their emotional bond. Their relationship was physical, but it was based on their emotional bond, their trust, and the fact that they needed each other to survive the horrors. It wasn’t healthy but it was them, it was just completely them. 

Liam loved the quietness of the pub. There had once been a time when he loved the fast movement and loudness of a dance club, but recently he had preferred the quietness. But tonight that just would not do. Tonight he needed to drown out everything from his past, and to do so meant that he had to return to his coping mechanisms of the past. He waited patiently in the line to get into the club, he could already hear the music bouncing before he had even entered. He wasn’t sure what tonight would come to but he was going to have fun. 

The flashing lights and the loud, banging music was almost too much for him. Ever since Lebanon and the bullet, he had struggled with bright lights and loud noises, it always resulted in him feeling extremely hungover without the joys of having been completely drunk the night before. But tonight, he appreciated that fact, because it meant that in the morning he would have regrets but for once he wouldn’t be thinking about Damien or Michael and what could have been. 

He may not be active military anymore but as soon as he entered a room or a building he checked his exits, he made sure that he knew how to make a quick escape. It was unlikely that he would end up in any of the situations that he may have with Section 20, but old habits die hard. Too hard sometimes. 

He could have sworn that on his first scan of the room he saw Damien sat at the bar, but he still made his way around the club checking all of the exits, all the potential dangers, everything that he had to be aware of. And then he made his way across to the bar, but by then the person he thought was Damien, wasn’t there. Nad again, it just felt as though the world was playing a horrid trick on him. 

“What can I get you, handsome?” and that was just a kick in the balls. Handsome was what Damien and Michael used to call him, and something that he was sure he wasn’t any more. But if he was going to be perfectly honest, he wanted to enjoy tonight, so he would flirt and he would get drunk. 

“Beer, whatever’s on tap, and two shots of vodka,” he eyed the waitress, she was gorgeous and he was willing to admit that, but she wasn't what he was looking for. He wanted someone handsome, someone who he could get drunk enough to mistake for Michael or Damien. The man he had mistaken for Damien when he walked in the door would be perfect, but first he needed to get some liquid courage down his throat. 

Damien would normally just go to a bar and drink as many beers as he felt like until Liam stopped haunting his thoughts. But sometimes he needed time away from everything, away from places he used to be happy when he had both of the men he loved keeping him afloat. And that is how he found himself here. 

When he had been in Malaysia he had found that clubs quietened his brain faster than anything else. The loud music, the flashing lights, and the hot press of people crammed onto a too small dance floor. It just made everything quiet, everything made sense for just a little while. But he also knew it was unhealthy. He would get drunk, he would sleep with whoever so much as glanced at him long enough, and then he would go fighting. 

That was before Michael had dragged him back to land of military service, and ultimately presented him with the two people who had always kept his head above water when things got tough. But that job had also taken his happiness away more than once. 

So, that is how he found himself inside a dance club in the middle of London, a club that he had never been inside of but Liam had spoken about more than once. He had spent more than a few nights sat outside the club, but tonight was the first time he had managed to venture inside. It reminded him of how he had spent his time in Malaysia. Within the first couple of drinks, he was beginning to drown out the mission that had gone wrong and the heartbreak of missing Liam as though he was missing a part of his soul. 

But then fate, or whatever you wanted to call it, decided to have a sense of humour. He loved Michael, but tonight he couldn’t do that, he couldn’t do a relationship, and when he was like that he risked things that he shouldn’t, so he began to scan the room to see who he wanted to take home. Who he wanted to take to bed. But then he saw someone who made his heart stop. 

There was a man, not that much younger than him, but far less haunted, making his way around the edge of the club. He wanted him, but not for the right reasons, there was one reason and one reason only. 

“Liam.” 

He muttered the name, and in that moment he needed to get out. He needed to escape. He needed to get away before he did something really stupid, like approaching the man he knew he had mistaken for being his ex. 

Michael was sitting in his car down the street from the club where he knew Damien would be when his phone rang. He knew that it was too early for Damien to have succeeded in drowning his sorrows, so honestly he was confused. Normally he had no idea what Damien was doing until he fell out of the pub or club that he had found to drown out everything. 

“Mike,” there was a sobbing tone in his voice, but Michael could also hear club music in the background. “Mike, I think I’m losing it,” Damien’s voice was full of panic, and Michael knew that there was something going on. There was something that had rocked him out of his comfort zone. 

“Damien, what’s going on, mate?” Michael didn’t wait for an answer, he reacted without the answer because he knew that whatever was up was messing with his partner. He knew from the sound of the music he could hear through the phone just which club he was in of the several along the stretch of road he had parked on. “Come on, mate, you’ve got to tell me what’s going on.” 

“I’ve got to be hallucinating or something.” Damien was sounding scared and heartbroken which terrified Michael because that just wasn’t normal for the American. “I keep seeing him, Mike.” 

“I’ll be there in a minute mate, but you’ve got to tell me, who do you keep seeing?” Michael glanced at the queue that was waiting to get in the club and was honestly thankful that he had picked Damien up from outside this club that he knew that a former teammate of his would be the one working the door. He knew that it was morally wrong to use that friendship so as to get in but he had done things that were far more immoral, for crying out loud he was one of the men that got sent in on operations to take out terrorists by any means possible. 

“Liam, I keep seeing Liam.” And that was enough to make Michael pull up short as if he had just been punched in the stomach. He had to question if Damien was hallucinating or if he was actually seeing Liam. He had heard the rumours, but had hit a dead end each time, so he had just accepted that the rumours that Liam had survived were false. 

Liam drank his two shots and half of his beer nearly instantaneously once they were placed in front of him. He had to admit that the buzz from the alcohol kicked in quickly for which he was grateful. Now all he had to do was find whoever he wanted to go home with that night, but first, some dancing. He wasn’t great at it, never had been, but he wanted to have some fun. 

So that was where he was, grinding back against a man who was probably a couple of years younger than him but definitely was more immature, when he saw the Damien doppelgänger with another man. It was at that point that his heart stopped. The other man was identical to Michael. Which meant that the universe either had a very sick sense of humour, or it was Damien and Michael, the two men who held his heart, and he didn’t know which one was better. 

But he had to get closer. He had to know. One way or another, he had to know and if it wasn’t, put an end to false hope he carried that he would get to be with them again. And before he had a chance to think about it, he was pushing away from the man who only a moment ago he had been happily grinding against, and started to make his way across the dance floor. He weaved and zigzagged between the dancing bodies, his feet carrying him without conscious thought. 

As he got closer the two men started to make their way out of the club, and with only a second of hesitation he finished his pint in a single gulp, and then he followed them. As soon as the cold air hit him he turned to look for the two men only to see them leaning against the wall at the corner of the club. 

The bigger man, the one who was identical to Damien, was leaned back against the wall, almost ready to slide down it whilst he held on tight to his companion, who was looking equally shaky. Liam knew that the man was clearly upset, and he knew that if the positions were reversed and he was in that position he wouldn’t want an audience, but he had to know. He had to find out if it was Damien and Michael or the universe playing a cruel trick. So he walked forward, towards them quietly and carefully. He didn’t want to interrupt them, he just wanted to be close enough to hear, to make out their facial features and know for certain. 

“Mike.” That name, in that deep American accent, was enough to answer all his questions. It was them. It was the two men he had wanted to see for the last year but had been stopped from at every turn. His life had been changed by that bullet, but what had changed the most was that everything he had had in Lebanon, had been destroyed and he had then been told that Michael and Damien were not to be contacted, that they couldn’t be contacted. 

The problem with having that confirmation, that it was them, was that he couldn’t stop the sob that escaped his lips. He couldn’t keep quiet, which caused both men to turn and look at him. 

Damien was normally the first to react when everything went wrong or the mission changed without notice, whereas Michael would normally calculate every angle and then react. But this time was different. Michael reacted first whilst Damien just turned to face the person in front of them who looked and sounded like Liam. Michael made sure that he had one arm holding his partner up, whilst he checked who was around, and then he directed his focus to Liam. 

“According to the records, you were KIA. Got an explanation for why you’re here?” It probably wasn’t the best question to ask, especially not in this scenario, but Damien was leaning heavily against his arm and felt unsteady on his feet. Honestly, the Englishman suspected that the only reason he was still standing, and hadn’t collapsed under the emotional load was sheer willpower. Answers were needed, and then they needed to go home. Together. All three of them if that was an option. 

“I was told I couldn’t contact the Section. You were all away when I woke up, and I never got an answer when I tried phoning,” Liam looked heartbroken. And that was worse than a punch in the gut for both Michael and Damien. 

“I didn’t want to leave you, Liam. But you were KIA, and I had to get the bastard who did it,” Damien almost sobbed the words but he pushed himself upright, any alcohol he had ingested that night was no longer having an effect on him. He waited a moment, waited until he was sure that the younger man was not going to run off, and then he made his way towards him. 

He stopped only a few feet outside of Liam’s personal space. It felt strange for all three men. Before, they had had no hesitation about invading each other's space, it was part of their jobs, but it was also who they were. They felt comfortable being that close to each other. 

“I’m so sorry,” Liam’s voice had broken on the first word, and it was all it took for all three men to step forward and pull each other into a tight embrace. “I’m sorry.” 

Michael appeared to be the only one not overcome with emotions at that moment, and also the only one who could think further than the fact that Liam was there, alive, and in their arms. 

“Come home with us?” The question was asked hesitantly, which was completely out of character for Michael, but both the American and the Irishman knew that it was because he was also overcome by the revelations of the night, 

It was the sun slipping through the cracks in the blinds that woke Liam, he hadn’t planned on falling asleep here, in fact he had planned on cutting and running as soon as he, Damien and Michael had finished. But then came round 2, and by the point that they had finished, he had fallen asleep. But now, whilst he wished that he could have avoided the walk of shame, he was happy to have seen Damien like this again. 

The man was normally all hard edges, inappropriate comments and sexual innuendo. But now, now he was almost calm and peaceful. It was something that the younger man had never thought he would witness after everything. He knew that Michael had, but then again both Damien and Michael were in situations where they had to trust the other or die, and those were a daily occurrence near enough. And he had experienced it. 

Liam looked to his left side where Michael lay. He had expected the man to be asleep so he was honestly surprised to see him awake and watching both him and Damien with a look of content on his face. 

“Don’t go. Don’t run. Let us try and fix this, Liam.” Michael had spoken in a soft whisper in an attempt not to wake the American. This was the first time in a year that the man had slept through the night without copious amounts of alcohol or waking up screaming from a nightmare. He wanted to let him sleep, and to make sure that Liam wasn’t going to leave them before they dealt with the morning after. 

“Okay, we’ll all try, but only if Damien agrees.” Unfortunately, Liam’s movement to try and sit up slightly so that he could speak to Michael easier was enough to wake the sleeping American, who strangely turned into a sort of koala and wouldn’t let go of Liam once he had his arms around him. 

“Deal.” 

It wasn’t perfect, it wouldn’t be by a long shot, but they would try, and they would fight to rebuild the relationship that wasn’t quite a relationship from a year ago. 


End file.
